Nick Hilton: Offering Ronnie Moore a new contract was the right thing to do

Share

Get daily updates directly to your inbox

Thank you for subscribing!

Could not subscribe, try again laterInvalid Email

REWARDING manager Ronnie Moore and the coaching staff with two-and-a-half-year contracts wasn’t simply the right thing for Tranmere to do. It was the prudent option too.

No one can doubt that Moore and the backroom team merited long-term deals (by current lower division standards) after shaping the most exciting and successful Rovers team in years out of the kind of financial resources some League One rivals would regard as small change.

Keeping them on the one-year deals they signed last summer would have been like leaving the doors of Prenton Park open to headhunters from other clubs.

Moore may have been out of the game for 11 months prior to rejoining Tranmere last March but his work since then marks him as a hot property now.

Managers who can build success from limited resources will usually attract the attention of those club owners obliged to worry about balancing the books.

Moore’s track record over a decade and a half as a manager in his own right passes the most forensic scrutiny.

Just ask Stefan Szymanski, an economics professor at the University of Michigan who analysed 32 years of English League club statistics and accounts, found that wages paid to players represent by far the most significant factor in influencing whether a club finishes near the top or bottom of a division and concluded only the best of managers can make a difference.

He compiled two tables of managers who emerged as overachievers in the statistical calculations. One table was based on wage spending relative to all 92 clubs, the other on a divisional wage calculation.

It was no surprise to find Bob Paisley at the top of each table and Alex Ferguson, Sir Bobby Robson, Arsene Wenger, Kenny Dalglish, Howard Kendall and Rafa Benitez featuring in the top 10s.

But Ronnie Moore’s name appeared in 12th place in the overall list and 17th on the divisional register, ahead of scores of managers with higher profiles.

That’s down to his record in two spells at Rotherham and one with Rovers, clubs where money is invariably tight.

Even so, the Tranmere team Moore fashioned during the summer from those players retained from last season, new recruits and loan signings, is exceptional in a number of ways.

Moore’s ability to pick the right players to fit into his plans reminds you he served nine years as assistant to Tranmere’s master team builder Johnny King.

Midfielder James Wallace, whose loan from Everton last season was converted into a permanent deal and Jean-Louis Akpa Akpro, a French striker who was with Rochdale last season, have turned into the outstanding signings. The acquisition of loan recruits Liam Palmer, Jake Cassidy and Ben Gibson were also well judged.

Moore applied his experience and know-how to the job of lifting away the anxiety from the struggling team he inherited last March.

Since the summer he has fostered a harmonious dressing room atmosphere that quickly built into a powerful team spirit that helps Tranmere to punch above their weight on the pitch.

“There’s a tremendous spirit amongst this group of players,” Moore said this week. “That’s why I call them the Dirty Dozen. They feel they are all in it together.”